I began resaerching my family background in Scotland a couple of weeks ago and I started reading about Scottish Kings. That led to English Kings which led to Viking/Norman Kings which led to Barbarian Kings which led to me realizing that there was one hell of a lot of inbreeding in those lines. It seemed that every King was related to every other King by blood or marriage. And for good reason, It kept invasions down to a minumum. Some of their women were married to other Kings, too. Either after one King killed the other, or after one King died and another took his bride. Usually it was about a claim of the other's kingdom and women seemed to be for breeding stock only. Also, he who had the most shiat certainly did win in those times.

It's a great read but there's so many Kings you can get off track quickly. Nearly all of them came from the Barbarians or Vikings that invaded Europe at the time. It was a brutal time for sure.

draa:It seemed that every King was related to every other King by blood or marriage.

Hence why Edward VII was known as the "Uncle of Europe".

Of course, the Egyptians weren't as much into intermarrying with other kingdoms to make peace, and thus creating the 2nd cousin type incest of Europe. Instead, they kept the family business really in the family (1st cousins were considered "distant"; uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and brother-sister were common).

HopScotchNSoda:draa: It seemed that every King was related to every other King by blood or marriage.

Hence why Edward VII was known as the "Uncle of Europe".

Of course, the Egyptians weren't as much into intermarrying with other kingdoms to make peace, and thus creating the 2nd cousin type incest of Europe. Instead, they kept the family business really in the family (1st cousins were considered "distant"; uncle-niece, aunt-nephew, and brother-sister were common).

Then you had the Hapsburgs, where your wife might be your cousin AND your niece, and possibly, in extreme cases, your brother-in-law.